Air (not)quality in Beijing and south of Himalaya

Haze south of the Himalaya

South of the Himalaya there is a “river” of haze, mix of agricultural fires, industrial and urban pollution, made worse by temperature inversion.

India and Bangladesh region south of the Himalaya’s on 11 January 2013. Image courtesy of NASA/Rapidfire.

This one is from 10 January 2013, shows how the haze hugs the Himalaya.

10 January 2013. Image courtesy of NASA/Rapidfire.

Incredible level of pollution in Beijing.

According to news the level of PM2.5 reaches 886 µg/m3 (think it is hourly values – would be nice to know) in places, and certainly over 700 µg/m3. This has been this way for several days. Health limit by WHO is 25 µg/m3 – so 35 times over the limit !

With abundant particulate matter sources, coal power, explosive growth in car ownership, and industry, and weather conditions unfavorable for good air quality (still weather), the levels can quickly go over the recommended health limits.

Officials have activated a new plan restricting construction and industrial activity, curbing vehicle use by government officials and ordering schools to limit outside activity.

However

At the same time, according to measurements (according to a news report though) in Dehli, India, on a fairly usual and brisk day, the PM2.5 concentration ranged from 130 to 565 µg/m3 !

Incredible extremes in Australian weather

There are many news about the conditions in Australia these days, but I couldn’t resist posting a few pictures about the conditions.

Over the past couple of year parts of Australia have received more rain than normally due to a condition called La Nina. That resulted in more vegetation, which when it dries up, is fuel for wildfires.

And now that the wildfires seem to be receding, at least temporally, even though the conditions are still very dangerous. There is a cyclone, Narelle, approaching the NW-coast of Australia. The cyclone is clearly visible on a satellite image from today, 11 January 2013.

MODIS satellite image form 11 January 2013. Image courtesy of NASA Lance.

Then look at this incredible picture!

Taken about 25 nautical-miles NW of Onslow (which is pretty much directly south of the “eye” of the cyclone on the image above).

Photo: Brett Martin. Read more.

The following picture is close to being iconic for these wildfires. Some say it might even become a “poster child” for climate change. It is however always difficult, basically impossible, to say that single events like this are due to climate change. But, this is what we do expect !

Grandmother with her grandchildren in Tasmania.

No wonder they took cover in the water!

Iceland at night–Black marble

This crop of Iceland is from the global map made by NASA EOS and NOAA using the Suomi NPP satellite. Show very nicely the sparse populated areas in Iceland.

Europe lights up, and the east coast of the USA, and of course many other areas.

Particulate Matter during New Year’s Eve 2012/13

This year it somehow seemed like there were fewer fireworks than often before.

The weather was quite good over New Year’s Eve, 5 m/s approaching midnight, but around 2-3 m/s at and just after midnight.

Measurements of PM10 in Reykjavik (GRE, FHG and FAR) show that the concentration didn’t last very long this year, although the maximum values were quite high. Difficult to say whether some fireworks were close to FAR, but at least know that no being shot next to the instruments at GRE and FHG. The maximum has often been higher, for instance once over 2300 µg/m3 (in 2005/6).

We did try to measure fine- and ultra-fine PM. I will tell about the results soon, haven’t collected the data yet – but certainly hope they worked.

Finally, just for fun, one can just about make out some of the major bonfires from satellite thermal images (taken at 22:20 on 31 Dec 2012). They show up as black dots on the images.

NOAA via VÍ

Happy New Year !